The Natural Solution

This is the place to come and lookup brief descriptions on just a few of the Therapeutic Grade Essential Oils offered by Young Living.  Each and every essential oil has a broad variety of benefits, so often MANY essential oils will be appropriate. This section is not meant to be a complete  reference area for essential oils, but more of a place to become familiar with the variety of singles and blends available through Young Living.  As there are well over 100 different essential oils available through Young Living, this site will be ever growing and improving, so check back often!

But the first question we should cover before we get into all the different TYPES of essential oils is the most important part, what makes these oils Therapeutic Grade?  How do you KNOW that you can not only be sure they are not harmful, but will actually be beneficial to you?  Lets talk a little bit about what it takes to even be considered “therapeutic”.

What makes an essential oil therapeutic grade?

You know that essential oils are distilled from plants and that they have powerful healing properties.
You know that they are used by massage therapists, for aromatherapy, and even cooking!

But did you know that less than 10% of essential oils sold in the United States are true Therapeutic Grade?

Standards have been developed by the Association French Normalization Organization Regulation (AFNOR) and adopted by the International Standards Organization (ISO) to distinguish true Therapeutic Grade essential oils from inferior oils merely used for fragrance. This is a growing concern as demand for essential oils increases due to health-conscious consumers desiring to ward off today’s stressful lifestyles–thus diminishing the supply.  ( While these certifying agencies are guidelines to assist us in determining the purity of these oils, clever essential oil producers have in some cases found ways to “fool” some testing devices. So, the only TRUE way to know, is to know your source.)
True Therapeutic essential oils are immune-system stimulating, anti-viral, anti-infectious, anti-bacterial, anti-microbial, antiseptic, anti-tumoral and even anti-fungal.

Gas Chromatography Purity Testing
Gas chromatography (GC) is the scientific method employed to differentiate imposters from the real McCoys. It measures whether basic components of an essential oil occur in a precise percentage. If only two primary constituents do not meet precise percentages, the oil cannot be AFNOR or ISO certified–although the oil may qualify as Grade A. Gas chromatography can also identify oils that have been synthetically manipulated (sometimes).  Young Living goes to great lengths to confirm all GC results and has each batch tested by 5 seperate facilities.  An oil’s purity can be affected by myriad environmental factors: geographical region, altitude, climate, soil, growing conditions and harvest method and season. Even the time of day the plant is harvested can affect the oil’s purity! Producing genuine Therapeutic Grade essential oils is indeed a fine art.  When Young Living doesn’t produce the plants on one of their four farms, they they send company representatives to evaluate all suppliers, they must know the harvest location, methods utilized to distill and  extract the oils (many times installing their own distillers at the facility), and data reports assuring the oil’s chemical constituents.

Proper Steam Distillation
The distillation method also affects an essential oil’s purity–and Therapeutic Grade oils mandate preserving as many of the plant’s compounds as possible. Therapeutic Grade essential oils must only be distilled in stainless steel cooking chambers at lowest possible pressure and lowest possible temperature. Extremely high temperature and high pressure, or contact with chemically reactive metals such as copper or aluminum can quickly destroy delicate compounds.
Young Living’s Essential Oils are 100% Pure Therapeutic Grade. The essential oils produced are obtained by steam distillation of the plant’s volatile oils. These  oils are derived from the first distillation–never the second, third or fourth! Did you realize that some distillers do that?

No Additives or Extenders
The primary components of 90+ percent of all essential oils in the market are synthetic. They should not be used for therapeutic applications, and they potentially carry risks. Only pure essential oils should be used for therapeutic purposes. At best, synthetic oils may not produce desired therapeutic results–at worst, they could possibly be toxic.

So there is the base of Therapeutic Grade.  It really does boil down to “know your source”.  Work with a company that not only has their own facilities and farms but encourage all their members to come and check these facilities for themselves.  I have had the honor and the pleasure to see two on Young Living’s farms.  If you ever doubt their purity, just go to the source yourself.  You will be amazed.